Charlie's Strange and Happy World

I guess I could also call this SCREWED: Part 2 -- like a movie title.

Three people have fully-functioning computers in the festival office: Marilyn, Carol and me. No one else can even see the Server, so they don't have access to folders or files, they have no email and no internet access.

Seriously.

(Plus Jodi needs internet to do payroll -- and our Staff does deserve to get paid...)

And we've got ONE working phone in the building -- the extra phone at the front desk (that we use so people calling can hear the ringing, a feature this modern phone doesn't allow). So our receptionist is trying to handle ALL the TONS of incoming phone calls ALONE. I can only imagine what a mess that is!

I'm trying to do my part from here at HOME, where I'm finally focusing on the parade script. It needs to go to PRINT the end of this week (or Monday at the latest). It's not even started.

I guess you could say I'm on a serious DEADLINE (what's new).

I've been on the phone from the second I got up.

Plus cousin Linda called to ask for money. Marilyn has no time to get to a bank to get cash. She can give Linda a check, but we already know Linda can't get a check cashed. It's a long story, but basically she needs it to give to Cricket for a cellphone. Linda is physically downtown and figured she could go by our office. Good luck seeing Marilyn today, with the meetings she'll be in!

May was the third worst month for rain in recorded history. And we're now getting HORRIBLE quantities of rain. We count on WFV for income, so this is rough... Say, I'm thankful we had such a great day on Memorial Day, because leading up to it was HARD. And obviously it's been a mess since then. I won't try to say that it's not disappointing to spend your entire year (long, hard hours) preparing for THIS, and have everything seem to be against us. But you know what? We're okay. I was just laughing on the phone with Kris. We know how to keep our chins up, no doubt about it.

And we also know about hard work, with few hours for sleep and little time to eat and NO TIME to do anything else. (I could certainly stand to do laundry. But at least I did dishes...)

What I don't have patience for is people around me who don't get it, and who complain about work (the hours are too long -- they had to work 8 1/2 hours, oh my), whine about money (try doing your work as a volunteer and not getting a paycheck) and are negative much of the time. Get over it. Try smiling in the face of some serious adversity, then get back to me. Not kidding.

And on that note, I'm getting back to work!

Okay, I'm now in such a GOOD mood! I can't stop smiling and even laughing out loud.

I just found out that a local website (Portland Twitter Trends) had ME (!!!) as a Trend Setter recently. Yeah, yeah, yeah -- I get that it's only for the city of Portland, Oregon -- but, hey, we're not exactly a small city. (And I imagine I'd be excited if I found out I was a trend setter for a community, much less the city, so I'm really grinning now.)

From Wikipedia on Portland: As of July 2009, it has an estimated population of 582,130 making it the 29th most populous in the United States. It has been referred to as the most environmentally friendly or "green" city in the United States and the second most in the world. Portland is Oregon's most populous city, and the third most populous city in the Pacific Northwest, after Seattle, Washington, and Vancouver, British Columbia.

Anyway, I guess all my Tweeting is totally worth it! (And I do love pimpin' out the festival frequently. Plus I'm always encouraging others to do the same.)

I've said it before that I 'get' Social Media -- and enjoy it a lot. I feel like I could give classes on effective ways to use it. Plus it doesn't have to take up all that much time, I find. Maybe that's just me... (smile)

Well, I don't have much free time to give to it these days, so...

Now I'm stoked to keep it up!